Children as young as EIGHT brandish their favourite assault weapons in the street as schoolkids are dragged into the bloody Iraq fighting.

Fresh-faced schoolkids on both sides of the sectarian violence - brutalised by 11 years of constant conflict - are arming up and preparing to kill their sworn enemies in real-life.

In one of the most chilling images to come from the latest flare-up in Iraq, pictures emerged showing children watching unmoved as a man is executed.

The mystery male in his twenties is made to kneel with his back to a baying mob before a man, apparently an ISIS fighter, approaches him from behind and calmly aims a pistol at his head.

Then the victim, whose hands are tied behind his back throughout the appalling ordeal, is shot dead and falls face first in the dirt.

Pictures coming out of Iraq reveal how children on both sides - the Sunni rebels ISIS and the Shia rebels preparing to defend Baghdad - are being used as boy soldiers.

Horrific: A young Iraqi boy holds a gun (Image: Getty)

One marauding jihadist was seen bringing along his own young supporters, including a balaclava-clad boy see on a pro-ISIS twitter feed holding up a “God is greatest sign”.

And there have been executions on both sides following horrific evidence that ISIS fighters have been executing captured soldiers.

It appears Shia militamen have decided to turn the tables on the Sunni rebels as ISIS fighters closing in on the rebel city of Baquba, north of Baghdad.

But it is unlikely to be a tough city to overrun as it has been the scene of some of the worst guerilla fighting against US troops when they occupied Iraq.

Along with Fallujah and Ramadi to the west of Baghdad it has a reputation for Sunni rebellion.

And yesterday more blood was spilled in escalating sectarian fighting north of Baghdad as at least 44 detainees died when Sunni rebels ISIS attacked a police station north east of the capital.

The station in Diyala province, which has a small jail, came under attack by Islamic militants who tried to free the detainees, who were all suspected Sunni militants.

But police later claimed that Shia militiamen defending the complex then turned on the detainees and executed them at close range.

A morgue official in the provincial capital of Baqouba said many of the dead had bullet wounds to the head and chest, while Iraq’s military argued they were killed when the attackers shelled the station with mortar rounds.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had announced the Iraqi government will arm and equip civilians who volunteer to fight as battles raged in Baqubah - the last major city before Baghdad.